Subpar Art

I'm not talking about Theo within the canonical time line rocking up in piercings and chains. No, I feel like his "boy next door" look is very much plot relevant and I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel here. Season 5 Theo needed to be as palatable as possible, sweet smiles, polite words, and trendy clothes that border on too tight.

But how about after? After the Dreads are dead and he's left aimless with the only reachable goal: survive, survive, survive. As much as he loath to admit a lone wolf never survives, especially one who'd spent near a decade of his life making an enemy of himself to damn near every corner of the world. No, it may wound his pride but he's no idiot. Survival meant sticking close to the protection of the McCall pack. He may not like it, they may not like it, but there wasn't any other pack who would willingly, idiotically offer him their protection despite everything.

So he stays. And they've seen through his facade, his "boy next door" routine means nothing now, except for scoring him the occasional hand out or odd job from the old ladies down at the retirement home. I imagine he'd cling to it for a while, it's his armor, a second skin. Something about old habits dying hard, it's not so easy to just drop the act even if it isn't so necessary anymore. But as the weeks wore on and surviving was less of a uphill brawl through the muck and more of being ground down daily and still having to pull himself off of the upholstery of his backseat every morning. It was exhausting, just going and going with no foreseeable end goal other than to make it through the next day. He had nothing to strive for, no adrenaline pumping through his veins at the impossible hurdles he once had to hop though. No more meticulous planning and month long executions, his life had been reduced to figuring out what to eat next and where to park hos truck every night.

It'd be a slow thing, him letting go of that shield, as useless as it is now. But him letting that shield fully down isn't even him going alt yet. This isn't him realizing he can truly wear and present himself how he wants. No, this is just the exhaustion finally setting in, him finally allowing himself to be comfortable. First he drops the jeans, warm soft sweatpants and pajama bottoms following. Then come longer sleeves, sweaters, hoodies, jackets. He doesn't care if he looks less presentable, he's comfortable, warmer than he's been in a long time. He even grows his hair out some, what's the point of all the up keep. It's not going to help him get his next meal.

I am just unfortunately in love with an unkempt, comfy Theo. Let my boy relax.

BUT onto the meat and potatoes. He's late stage. I don't think he starts truly expressing and figuring himself out until his late twenties to early thirties. Gimme older Theo getting piercings and tattoos, wearing clothes that are "out there" and getting wild haircuts. Gimme a Theo who surprises his boyfriend everyday with a new look. And Liam would be so proud, even when he looks absolutely ridiculous, or too much for Liam's taste he's just so damn happy to see him being himself. To see him finally doing something because he can and not because he has to. But also you can't tell me he wouldn't be attracted to his boy with a tongue piercing and neck tattoos.

I had this on my mind because I more recently was making older post canon designs for my boys and I think I went about it the wrong way. As in basing my designs mostly on how the actors look and dress now that they're older when I should have been thinking about the characters themselves and how they'd choose to present themselves. That being said Liam will never leave his jock, soft boy look.